Published: October 12, 2004

A man who spent 19 years in the state penitentiary on a rape conviction was freed after DNA evidence showed he could not have been the rapist. The man, Dennis Brown, 38, had been picked out of a line-up where he was being used as a ''filler,'' someone to compare with the real suspects. The DNA tests that excluded him as the attacker were conducted after Mr. Brown asked for help from the Innocence Project in February 2003. More than 150 convictions have been overturned nationwide based on DNA tests, the organization said.